Icehotel wins Swedish export award

The now year-round snow and ice hotel destination wins for its contribution to tourism and for raising Sweden’s profile.

Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, northern Sweden, has received the country’s Export Hermes award for its export successes in tourism and for its international public relations work.

The title has been awarded since 1981 to Swedish companies that carry out exceptional export successes, helping to put Sweden on the map. This year Icehotel shared the prize with Mora-based knife producer Morakniv.

“Morakniv and Icehotel have attracted the world’s interest in their products and experiences through a clear export strategy that includes active work through social media and international public relations,” the jury said.

“We are hugely proud and grateful to receive the Export Hermes prize and that after almost 30 years we have contributed the most to positioning Sweden with our crystal clear ice, our amazing scenery and our guests’ experiences. Allowed to be a window to the world for Sweden makes us very proud,” Risenius said.

Year-round ice
Since the first Icehotel was created in the village of Jukkasjärvi in 1989, it has been revived in a new guise every winter for almost three decades, attracting artists and guests from all over the world to a hotel made sustainably from snow and ice.

In 2016, it also became the world’s only year-round ice hotel, called Icehotel 365, where guests can experience 20 rooms of ice and snow, an ice bar and an ice gallery throughout the year.

Every year around 70,000 guests visit Icehotel, 70% of whom are from abroad. Recently, the US magazine TIME named it as one of the world’s best places to visit in its list World’s Greatest Places 2018. The list also includes Retreat at Blue Lagoon in Iceland and Noma in Copenhagen.